SIDNEY – Homecoming 2017 for the Sidney Warriors couldn’t have gone any better – especially for their starting quarterback who led them to a big 42-19 win over Harpursville-Afton this past Friday.

In a battle of the state-ranked teams, Sidney (third in NYS Class D) and Harpursville-Afton (10th in NYS Class D) played to a 20-13 game at the end of the third quarter, in favor of Sidney.

That is when it all imploded – following the Hornets Josh Wilson’s 11 yard run to take the game to 20-19 early in the fourth quarter – it was Sidney who scored 22 unanswered points in the final quarter to pull away for the big rival game.

With a solid rushing attack on both sides, it was Sidney’s prolific passing attack which proved to be the difference in the showdown.

A solid day by most high school standards – Greg Akulis of Harpursville-Afton passed 22 times, completing 13 passes for 109 yards – two passes went for interceptions.

Darren Smith, outplayed that mark and then some, throwing for 366 yards, while completing 21 of 27 passes, and adding three touchdowns.

20-6 at the half, a solid push from the Hornets showed their true grit scoring 13 points in just over a quarter of play.

Yet, Sidney is ranked third in New York State for a reason, one of those reasons being the ability to score 22 fourth quarter points to pull away from another state ranked team.